With the advent of pagers and mobile phones the wireless service industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Recently, duplex wireless devices have grown in popularity. Duplex wireless devices allow for the exchange of voice and other information over the same channel. This is advantageous for multi-use wireless devices that perform other non-telephony functions such as the administering of contact information, calendar information, cataloging of images, video and audio. Users of multi-use wireless devices take advantage of the duplex nature of their products to talk and to exchange information. Current multi-use wireless devices, however, do not come without their drawbacks.
One problem with current multi-use wireless devices is that voice and data cannot be transmitted at the same time. That is, one function must be suspended in order to perform the other function. Thus, if a first party is currently involved in a telephone call and he desires to send a file to the other party via the wireless device, the first party must suspend his telephone call in order to send the file. This can be annoying and inconvenient to today's consumers.
Another problem with current multi-use wireless devices is that the exchange of data can be confusing and difficult to manage. The sending or receiving of data often involves navigation through a plethora of screens and menu selections in order to accomplish a simple task. This can be disconcerting and inconvenient for users of the wireless device. Furthermore, data that is exchanged is constantly being developed and modified. Thus, when data, such as contact information or a calendar entry, is exchanged via a wireless device, it is often necessary to later update that information when it has been modified. This involves recalling the recipients of the original data and determining the type of data exchange that had occurred. This can be a tedious and difficult task when large and various amounts of information are involved.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.